Questions

Most school districts in Texas use bonds to finance renovations, additions and new facilities. School districts do not receive any money from the state for the construction of new school buildings or improvements. Since school buildings serve the community for 50 or more years, it is well reasoned that taxpayers would pay for them over a period of 30 years and not from the district's annual operating budget.

By law, bond funds cannot be used for payroll expenses or any daily operational costs such as utilities, supplies, fuel, and insurance.  Instead, bond funds can only be used for new buildings, additions and renovations, land acquisition, technology infrastructure and equipment, or school buses.

A school district’s tax rate is comprised of two components or “buckets”. The first bucket is the Maintenance and Operations budget (M&O), which funds daily costs and recurring or consumable expenditures such as teacher and staff salaries, supplies, software and utilities. The second bucket is the Interest and Sinking budget (I&S), also known as Debt Service, and that is for longer-term capital improvements approved by voters through bond elections. I&S funds cannot by law be used to pay M&O expenses, which means that voter-approved bonds cannot be used to increase teacher salaries or pay rising costs for utilities and services.

No.  By law, if you receive an Age 65 or Older Exemption, your homestead tax rate cannot be raised above the frozen level unless you make significant improvements to your home.  A significant improvement would be anything beyond normal maintenance or repair, such as building a swimming pool or adding a garage or game room.

Under state law, if you have applied for and received the Age 65 Freeze on your homestead, your school taxes CANNOT be raised above their frozen level unless you make significant improvements or additions to your home. To apply for the Age 65 freeze, contact your county’s Central Appraisal District.

• Newton Central Appraisal District - http://www.newtoncad.org/ - 409-379-3710

Early voting:
April 22 - April 30, 2024
8 am - 3:30 pm
Deweyville ISD Administration Building

Election Day
Saturday, May 4, 2024
7am - 7 pm
Location to be determined

Anyone at least 18 years of age and living within the boundaries of Deweyville ISD is eligible to vote.  You must be registered by Thursday, April 4, 2024, in order to participate in this election.

How do I know if I’m registered to vote?

You can check your voter registration status at www.votetexas.gov.

If you need to update your address, you can simply fill out the change online.

An itemized bid/quote cannot be available until after the facility is fully designed, bid documents prepared and bid which will not occur unless the bond passes. The amount of the bond was determined by architects, who are experts at designing school facilities in the state of Texas, meeting with district’s staff to document what the facility is to contain (such as number of classrooms, gyms, cafeteria, etc.).  This documentation is called a building program.  This building program was then sent to contractors, who provided an estimate as to what the project should cost when competitively bid, accounting for inflation.  This is the typical process for school design/construction because it prevents districts from spending taxpayer funds on the design of projects that cannot be constructed due to their bonds not passing.

The rough numbers are based on a 95,000 square foot building that meets all federal and state requirements.  Different areas of a school are priced differently by the approximated square footage required for common areas (media center/library, cafeteria, gym etc.) per student plus square footage for classrooms, offices and restrooms. Out of the 95,000 square foot proposed 70,000 of that is for classrooms, labs, workshops and other spaces where learning is taking place. The 95,000 square foot is labeled in 6 different categories that each have a different price for approximating cost per square foot.  Overall it is estimated to be about $325 - $395 per square foot for the actual brick and mortar building.  The systems needed for a building with the square footage for 300 students (Fire alarm, intercoms, electronic safety and security etc.) accounts for the rest of the budget, roughly.  The roof for the high school is approximately $795,000 to $1,000,000.  Inflation issues are factored into the estimated price. To give you an idea of things, Deweyville High School is 110,208 square feet and replacement is estimated at $76,091,041. I am including the website that shows the facilities audit that is public information and has additional information about the newer buildings and their replacement values etc.  https://facilitydashboard.tasb.org/public/?districtname=Deweyville-ISD

The proposed middle school building’s utilization rate is based on the program needed by the district and the square footage required by state law.

Utilization rates are set by the campus administrators based on the anticipated class schedule (including the electives offered to the students, which greatly impacts this rate due to the unpredictable number of students choosing each elective relative to each classroom capacity).

Since every district has a different combination of course offerings, student makeup, and teaching methods, there is no school building, district, or group of districts with facilities to establish an ideal utilization rate.

All school districts could get together and determine the current utilization rates based on their existing facilities, but this would result in too wide of a range to be useful data.

Based on the Deweyville ISD’s needs, the current utilization rate for the proposed facility is accurate and not unusual for this project.

The facility needs were based on the following premises:

Avoid mixing the middle school students with the high school students (there is not a way to fully avoid this if features are being shared).

Avoid paying more for these shared features in the future when they are needed (due to inflation).

Avoid increasing the wear and tear on the district's oldest school facility.

The purpose of this project is not to resolve a capacity issue, but to protect the younger students from the influence of the older students.

With all the social pressures that are currently occurring with high school students (vaping, drugs, sex, access to harmful information/items) it is good for the mid-level students to be separated during what are some of their most life defining years.

If the bond passes, the district’s personnel, architects, and contractors will continue to refine the design to make this an efficient facility the community will consider safe and will be proud of for their children to attend.

Prior to the new facility being proposed, Claycomb Architects did look at connecting to the current High School.  (See graphic below.)

Pros:

• Saves approximately 13.1 thousand Sq Ft, which equals approximately $4.9 M in savings.

Cons:

• The approximate $4.9 M savings is negligible compared to the cost of a new, stand-alone facility.
• It does not fully separate the younger students from the older students.
• Parent traffic circulation and bus circulation would be very difficult to resolve if the younger students are to be separated during pick-up and drop-off times.
• The Middle School students would not have their own identity.
• The construction would take place on needed parking and practice field spaces.
• The existing High School facility is suspected to have been constructed at a lower elevation than the new facilities, so ramps and steps would need to be utilized to access portions of the facility. This would add floor area, and therefor, cost to the project.

Clarification:   $395 is high for the budget provided.  The budget is not compiled with the same square footage budget for all portions of the building.  For example, locker room construction (having more durable cmu walls and more pluming is calculated at a different rate than a classroom with drywall/metal stud walls and no plumbing).  The construction budget provided was compiled by local contractors, not the school district or architect. For an overall budget, which is what is provided on the website, soft costs, typically +/-10%) need to be considered (such as furniture, equipment, engineering, utility connections, etc.) along with approx. 1.5 years of inflation. The project’s construction actual cost will be provided once the project is bid. If the project ends up costing less than the budget, the district will only spend the cost of the project.

Taxes are based on property values, so salary has nothing to do with how much tax will be paid.   This table helps explain how your property values affect taxes.  (The exemptions in the table are only for homesteads.)  On the table, you will notice that a homestead valued at $125,000 will not be assessed any taxes after the exemptions are applied.

All property will be assessed, but there are certain exemptions that are applied.  For example, if you are age 65 or older, and have applied for and received your Age 65 Freeze, your tax rate on your homestead will not go up.  Also, taxes on your homestead have a Local 20% Exemption and a State $100,000 Exemption applied before taxes are assessed.  The table below gives you some examples of how your homestead taxes will be affected.  On the table, you will notice that a homestead valued at $125,000 will not be assessed any taxes after the exemptions are applied.

No

Yes here is the link to the board meeting agendas and minutes from June 2023   https://meetings.boardbook.org/Public
The Texas Education Code, chapter 44.031 (https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/ED/htm/ED.44.htm) prescribes the legal requirements for school districts to hire service professionals such as architects.  They must be selected based on their ability and past experience rather than cost.  Their cost is considered during their contract negation which follows their selection.

An itemized bid/quote cannot be available until after the facility is fully designed, bid documents prepared and bid which will not occur unless the bond passes. The amount of the bond was determined by architects, who are experts at designing school facilities in the state of Texas, meeting with district’s staff to document what the facility is to contain (such as number of classrooms, gyms, cafeteria, etc.).  This documentation is called a building program.  This building program was then sent to contractors, who provided an estimate as to what the project should cost when competitively bid, accounting for inflation.  This is the typical process for school design/construction because it prevents districts from spending taxpayer funds on the design of projects that cannot be constructed due to their bonds not passing.
The roof for the high school is approximately $795,000 to $1,000,000.  Inflation issues are factored into the budget.
To give you some perspective, the Deweyville High School is 110,208 square feet and replacement is estimated at $76,091,041. I am including the website that shows the facilities audit and has additional information about the newer buildings and their replacement values etc.  https://facilitydashboard.tasb.org/public/?districtname=Deweyville-ISD

According to the Vidor Superintendent, the $18M cost for the Vidor JH is only what FEMA allotted for the project.  When bid in early 2021, the project came out to $26M.  That amount is ONLY for building costs and does not include any site work, parking, FFE, AV or IT. The general contractor on the project estimates the $26M would be around $39M today.  When you figure in the costs for site work, parking, FFE, AV and IT, and include 4 years of inflation (as the bid date will be in March 2025 for the Deweyville project), the Vidor JH will be in the same range, if not more, than the Deweyville project.

Current enrollment numbers for the Deweyville campuses are:
Elementary:  256
JH/HS:  273

Here is a table showing the increase in tax rate (34.3 cents) and the expected increase for some homeowners.  The average homestead's taxes will increase $7.88/year.

The 2021 bond election and issuance was for paying off $6,140,000 of M&O debt that was issued for the elementary school and high school HVAC projects. The proceeds from that election paid off the M&O debt and the new debt is now being paid off with I&S revenues.

The current bond election and subsequent debt is only for a new middle school and roof at the high school.  None of this current bond will go toward the elementary school.

Deweyville ISD’s tax rate has dropped over the years.